I have seen some cheap shit in my time, but the opening of this Turkish rip-off of Superman has to take the goddamned cake. The narration tells us that in the farthest reaches of space, there is the planet Krypton. When we finally see it, Krypton is... I shit you not… a Christmas ornament hanging from the ceiling! It’s enough to make the hubcap UFOs in Plan 9 from Outer Space look like the work of ILM in comparison.
It gets worse. Then, the John Williams theme kicks in and we see the Superman crest, which looks like it was drawn by a third grader. I live for shit like this, folks.
When the movie finally begins, it’s so cheap looking that it looks like a '70s porn parody. Minus the porn. Or the parody.
The nerdy Tayfun learns from his parents that they found him in a rocket ship when he was a baby. They give him a stone that was in the ship, and it guides him to a cave where he learns from the ghost of his father that he is Superman. Working as a mild-mannered reporter, Tayfun learns of a plot by a villain to turn “Krypton stone” (it’s never called Kryptonite) into gold. He kidnaps a professor, who happens to be the father of the Lois Lane substitute, Alev. It’s then up to Tayfun/Superman to save Alev’s dad and stop the bad guy.
The scenes where Superman fights crime lean closer to the George Reeves TV show than the Christopher Reeve movie, but they are still quite entertaining. Thugs break chairs over our hero’s head, stab, and shoot him with no effect. It also steals some bits from the old Captain Marvel serial too. (The scene where his father gives him his powers, the guillotine cliffhanger, etc.), but that only adds to the fun.
The flying scenes are hysterical too. In some shots, it looks like a Superman doll being held up in front of someone’s vacation home videos. Oh, and in addition to stealing cues from John Williams’ Superman score, it also swipes bits from the soundtrack of the James Bond movies.
As cheap as most of this is, I will say the scene where Superman prevents two trains from colliding is well done. Well… in comparison to everything else in the movie. The scene where he saves Alev from a runaway truck is OK too.
One power this Superman has that his American counterpart doesn’t is the ability to type up his stories telepathically. Let’s see Clark Kent try that! He also uses his X-Ray vision to see a woman in her underwear, but it appears this happened accidentally, so we will give him a Mulligan on that one.
As far as Turkish rip-offs go, this is one of the more entertaining ones. It has a nice mix of touches from its American inspiration as well as its own brand of WTF silliness. If you’re a fan of bad superhero movies and wacky world cinema, by all means, check it out.
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